Lifestyle & Home: W + W at Roca.

This little genius idea combines two rather obvious issues and solves them in a beautifully constructed way. The wash basin and water closet not only minimises space but also means that the waste water from the sink flows into the cistern of the toilet- thus excluding the wastage of water.

Designers Gabriele and Oscar Buatti have created a ‘meeting of the ways between sophistication and love for the planet’ coupled with a strong yet simple design.

For more info visit Roca.

Poppy

Lifestyle & Home: Graze Healthy Snacks

If for you this word is more synonymous with something that you do, and not just cows, then maybe you should try out this great new scheme.

In a nutshell (actually in a lovely brown biodegradable box) Graze send you a bento style selection of healthy snacks to pick at during the day. These snacks range from roasted seeds and dried fruit to olives and flapjacks, with a combination of four in each box. All portions are nutritionally balanced and come with a card telling you more about them.

When you join you rate which things you want to get in your box, choosing either to make up your own one or let Graze decide what you'll get (a nice surprise!) These boxes are then popped in the post and can be delivered easily to work, or to home if like me you just like the novelty of food in the mail! All postage is free and the boxes are also slim enough to fit through the letterbox so no 'sorry we missed you' cards.

Sign up and get your first box half price.

Poppy

Lifestyle & Home: Lent

Whether you are religious or not, Lent often inspires many people to give up one thing or another for the weeks leading up to Easter. While most people give up chocolate, or crisps or other ‘bad’ foods I was inspired to do something different last year.

During a mildly tipsy conversation with a friend around this time last year, we began talking about being self conscious and how at the gym (we had both recently joined) we both had an odd admiration for those women who were quite happy to stand naked in the shower amongst the rest of us. Being a yoga and pilates girl I didn’t really feel the need to rush to the showers and often just waited until I got home. My friend however would always sidle into a bikini after her running and cycling and shower like that. After discussing the point of the negative body image many of us have, especially I always feel, around other females (I am still of the belief that women are the cruellest critics) my friend decided on what she was going to give up for Lent: Wearing clothes in the shower at the gym. It was a simple vow but at the same time would inevitably change the way she felt about her body.

It got me to thinking a couple of days later, what could I give up that would be of a similar scale? I decided on something not quite as specific but the following: To give up not doing things purely because I felt out of my comfort zone.

I spent the next month of so speaking to new people, trying out new foods and saying yes to a lot more things that I would normally would with great repercussions. I booked my trip to Paris, ate out alone for the first time (strangely liberating) and made an effort to meet up with new friends.

It is for this reason that this year I am channelling the idea of ‘giving something up’ in the sense that it can change you for the better. A lot of people give up chocolate because they feel that it is either a bad thing to be eating or that by giving it up for a time, they will appreciate it more.
This year I am thinking of using Lent as an excuse to give up the following:

Pre-judging: Not watching/reading or listening to things that I think ‘aren’t my thing’ as I may be presently surprised.

Laziness: Getting the bus to the nearest tube- I am perfectly capable of walking for 20 minutes and what’s more, I actually really enjoy it when I do it.

Forgetting to take reusable bags shopping

Not texting back. It infuriates me, so I shouldn’t do it to others.

Being a bad consumer: Buying products that aren’t fair-trade when there is the option, a no brainer really.

Buying fruit, veg and meat which have been shipped from afar. In fact, I’ve given up meat all together.

I wonder what you’ll give up...

Poppy

Lifestyle & Home: Votivo Christmas candle

Festive candles are a sure-fire way to get everyone in the Christmas mood.

Votivo’s new soy-based Icy Blue Pine is a nostalgic mix of fir balsam, spruce and cedarwood that lasts more than 50 hours. It’s part of the Holiday Collection, which includes Christmas Sage, Joie de Noel, Winter Solstice, Red Currant, and Clementine & Clove.

All of Votivo’s candles are hand-crafted and luxuriously packaged – take your pick from the collections on the website, which also details stockists: www.votivo.co.uk

While you’re there, check out the special-edition Votivo for Vogue candle. The fragrance and charity were chosen by Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman and £5 per candle is donated to The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

Jane Lee

Lifestyle & Home: Tips for the Winter weather cyclist

I recently changed jobs and now work much closer to home, swapping a two-hour train journey for a 20 minute bike ride, which is bliss. I get more sleep, have more leisure time, and I'm trimmer and fitter thanks to my new regime. Through summer and autumn riding into work has been a pleasure – and I'm still enjoying it even now its colder, darker and wetter. But I'm finding out that cycling to work during the winter months takes a bit more preparation. All of a sudden it seemed as though I'm permanently wet, cold, and invisible in the early darkness. So begins my quest for warmth, dryness and visibility. I'm determined to stay on my bike and not let the weather put me off, and so I need weapons to help me in the grim battle against the elements.

I had it in my head that the first casualty of bad weather is style, and so was pleased to find some pretty and practical solutions to the wet and the dark. Bobbin's Bikes make some seriously cute hi-viz reflective gear, a brilliant Miss World-style sash, and a cheeky sailor-suit collar, which will get you noticed on your bike – stylish, fun and safe. On Etsy I found sweet reflective bows for helmet, hair and lapel. Slightly more traditional, but still distinctive, are these hi-viz vests from Georgia in Dublin, which kind of put me in mind of a Piet Mondrian painting. Also available from this store is a high waisted, wrap-around waterproof skirt, which doubles as a picnic blanket. Marvellous.

T-cycle do a nice range of t-shirts for women, men and kids, made from re-used fabric and water-based dyes. The long sleeved women's tops look particularly inviting for this time of year. For outer layers, there are some amazing cycling capes available, in reflective tweed, from Cycle Chic and from Bobbin's Bikes an origami inspired cape in recycled-plastic fabric. From my own experience, capes rather than anoraks are the way to go, there's more freedom of movement and you are less restricted as to what you can wear underneath.

It's great to be able to lock up your bike quickly and with the minimum of fuss when the weather is bad, and so I really like the look of these u-lock holster belts made from reclaimed seat belt material. This store, Urban Hunter, also has some cool wallets and bags made from recycled inner tubes, some excellent organic t-shirts, and post-ride natural massage oil for aching muscles. More tough, waterproof bags for bikes made from upcycled agricultural packaging, are available from Organic Bikes: ethical, sturdy, waterproof, colourful, with reflective stripes for visibility, and each one is unique.

Although there are lots of options for keeping your feet dry on your bike, my wellies are more than equal to the task. And if you don't think it's possible to be chic in gum boots, think again! Danish women wrote the book on looking fab on two wheels, and if wellies are good enough for them, they're good enough for me!

Sophy

Lifestyle & Home: Sleep tight on a bamboo mattress

Perfect for anyone suffering from allergies or sensitive skin, Relaxsan’s Magnificent Bamboo mattress has a unique, non-toxic bamboo fabric cover.

Bamboo fibre is highly renowned for its hypoallergenic and antibacterial properties, and helps to keep skin fresh by instantly absorbing and evaporating sweat.

The mattress also benefits from Memorex foam, which distributes body weight evenly and increases muscle relaxation for the perfect night’s sleep.

Relaxsan mattresses contain no toxic or non-biodegradable materials. For details visit www.relaxsanmagniflex.com and for stockists call 07989 400 962.

Jane Lee

Lifestyle & Home: An eco fireworks night?

I love Fireworks Night, and will be heading to Lewes this Friday for the usual spectacle of pyrotechnic wizardry. But these kinds of displays are increasingly becoming something of a guilty pleasure, as fireworks release many polluting chemicals as they explode and create toxic litter as they land which can poison the soil and harm wildlife. So what's the solution? These well-loved displays are not going anywhere and provide a fantastic opportunity for people to come together for a bit of "ooh" and "ahh". Going to your local display rather than having your own amateur (and much more risky) show in the back garden helps, council run displays have to stick to much stricter standards of environmental safety, and are generally a lot more impressive than anything you can manage in your back garden. But if you want to have it your way, here are some less polluting alternatives which are also fun and pretty.

Having taken part in a mass release of Chinese Sky Lanterns, I can confirm that nothing beats the feeling of the lantern inflating and tugging at your fingers as it fills with hot air and starts to float up. As you release, it takes off very quickly and goes silently rocketing up into the night sky. After these lanterns became popular, there were concerns about the impact on the environment, and so now a biodegradable alternative is available, Skyorbs, fuelled by candles made from recycled wax from Buddhist temples (a nice touch). If you're looking for a more spiritual 5th November, this could be for you. At the other end of the scale, a hi-tech alternative is an indoor fireworks projector which recreates a display right down to the sounds - perfect if you can't face the cold and the crowds. You can even programme your own displays from the 9 discs included in the kit.

What other alternatives are there? At the moment, not much. In 2004, Disney pioneered air-launch fireworks which don't use gun powder, and 'green fireworks' which produce less pollutants are available but only really suitable for large scale displays due to the cost. Maybe the solution is to ask your local council if they will be using environmentally friendly fireworks (and if not, why not), and to try and 'offset' Fireworks Night by making the rest of the day as sustainable as possible.

Sophy